All posts tagged William Styron

In this installment of the WSJ Book Club, thriller writer Lee Child selected “Sophie’s Choice,” by William Styron. Mr. Child is impressed by how Styron masterfully discloses information, morsel by morsel. For this week’s book-club question, let’s discuss Styron’s approach to story-telling, which is a classic narrative strip-tease, played out slowly, chapter after chapter. You don’t even learn of the existence of a major character until well past the halfway mark in the book. Did you enjoy Styron’s slow process of disclosure, or did you ever wish he would just hurry up and spill the beans?

Fellow book club members: This week, let’s talk about William Styron’s use of language. A number of readers have commented on how much they enjoy Styron’s writing and his dazzling verbosity. (I kept a dictionary by my side while reading it and used it quite frequently.) Lee Child has a slightly different view of Styron’s prose. Says Mr. Child: “I don’t think it’s a particularly beautiful or lyrical novel. Sentence by sentence, you wouldn’t say that this is the most beautifully written thing. It’s very functional, and I don’t mean to damn with faint praise.”

It’s a bit daunting, but one way to enjoy the book and make steady progress is to essentially break it into more bite-sized pieces, and William Styron’s approach makes this a particularly appealing way to read the book. That’s because Styron is the master of the literary set piece. Says Lee Child: “It is one set piece after another. Each could stand-alone as a short story in the New Yorker.”

(This month’s WSJ Book Club host is thriller writer Lee Child, author of the best-selling Jack Reacher books. He selected William Styron’s 1979 novel, “Sophie’s Choice.” Participate by joining the WSJ Book Club Facebook group, where we will post weekly discussion topics and questions. Check out WSJ.com/bookclub for additional information, or stay up to date on Twitter using the hashtag #WSJbookclub. Sign up for the WSJ Book Club here.) Read More »

Lee Child is one of the most successful thriller writers of his generation. His 18 Jack Reacher novels have sold nearly 100 million copies in 42 languages and have all been optioned by Hollywood. Mr. Child writes polished, efficient prose that keeps his hero, a highly moral—and lethal—ex-MP, roaming the country, dispensing brutal justice.

So it was a surprise that the British author didn’t choose a classic thriller for his stint hosting the WSJ Book Club. Instead, he picked William Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice,” which runs almost 600 pages and couldn’t be more different from a Reacher novel in style and structure. (In the Journal’s book club, authors serve as guest hosts, selecting their favorite books and describing how those works have influenced them. Coming hosts include Margaret Atwood.)

Might publishers someday print not the collected letters of a famous writer, but their collected tweets? It’s entirely possible. The author, apparently, doesn’t even need to have lived through the age of Twitter. Last week at the Wharton School’s Future of Publishing conference in Manhattan, Brendan Cahill, VP and publisher of Open Road, mentioned that the e-book publisher has set up a Twitter account for William Styron.

The author of “Sophie’s Choice” and “Lie Down in Darkness” has been tweeting (and re-tweeting) for more than a week. Sample: “Look, there’s only one person a writer should listen to…It’s not any damn critic. It’s the reader. -Styron.” As of this moment, the author has 19 followers and is following such twitter members as BookBitch and Bookgasm. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.